Illegal immigrants detained in Moscow as Putin promises tougher line

A detained illegal immigrant from Uzbekistan, looks from his cell through a dirty glass window with a grate at police station in Kazansky (Kazan) railway station in Moscow on Jan. 24, 2012. Police detained about 30 migrants during a routine check at a railway station in Moscow on Tuesday. In a far-ranging article published earlier on his campaign website, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that he planned to toughen up immigration legislation.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has warned ethnic tensions could tear Russia apart, saying he would toughen migration rules on reassuming the presidency and keep a tight rein on Russia's regions to prevent it following the Soviet Union into oblivion.

Putin, in power since 2000 and favored to win a six-year presidential term in March, described a Soviet-style vision of a country in which the rights of ethnic minorities would be respected but Russian language and culture would dominate. Continue reading.

Andrey Smirnov / AFP - Getty Images

A police officer, right, locks up a detained illegal immigrant from Uzbekistan in a cell at Kazansky railway station on Jan. 24, 2012.